Mira also realized something in that moment. "Did you offer me sponsorship because you wanted to find a way to make yourself stronger via eating equipment?"

Her tone was accusatory as she narrowed her eyes at Cain. Feeling awkward, Cain didn't dare meet her eyes as treating a blacksmiths gear as consumables was probably highly disrespectful to them.

Mira's gaze lingered on Cain for a long moment before her expression shifted from accusation to something far sharper. It was not anger in her eyes but an intensity that made Cain feel like he was under a smith's hammer.

"You can really eat equipment," Mira said at last, her voice low but laced with curiosity. She reached into the air beside her, her hand disappearing into the faint shimmer of her magic storage. "I want to see this with my own eyes."

Cain blinked as she pulled free a dagger that shimmered with faint blue light. The blade itself gave off a chilling aura that made the air feel colder just by existing. Even from a distance, he could feel the magic coiled inside it.

"This dagger was forged from frost steel," Mira explained, holding it by the hilt without hesitation. "If you touch the blade with your bare skin, it will cause ice burns within seconds. I forged it myself about six months ago."

Maris' eyes widened. "Wait, you are giving him that?" There was disbelief in her tone, but also something else. A trace of envy lurked beneath her words, as if she could not accept that someone could gain strength so easily while she spent years honing her craft and training her body.

Mira ignored her as she tossed the dagger lightly in the air once before letting it fly toward Cain in a neat arc. "Show me," she said simply.

The blade landed in Cain's hand with a faint hum of cold energy. He looked down at it, then back at Mira, feeling as though he had just been shoved into the center of everyone's attention.

"You are serious," Cain said slowly.

"Dead serious," Mira replied, folding her arms.

For a moment, he considered refusing. He did not like performing tricks for others, but the expectant eyes on him left little room to back out. Kiyomi tilted her head slightly, three tails swaying behind her as if she were watching prey about to be eaten. Maris looked ready to jump out of her skin from curiosity alone. Even Mira's cool composure barely hid the hunger for knowledge in her gaze.

With a small sigh, Cain lifted the dagger. "Fine. Just remember, you asked for this."

He brought the blade toward his mouth.

"Wait," Maris said quickly, a note of real concern slipping in despite her jealousy. "Are you actually going to bite into it? That's frost steel, you lunatic. You are going to lose your teeth."

Kiyomi said nothing, but there was tension in her posture as her ears tilted forward. She clearly expected something to go wrong.

Cain ignored them both and bit down.

The sound of metal snapping echoed through the training ground like ice shattering on a frozen lake. The blade crunched between his teeth as if it were nothing more than brittle candy. Cold energy surged through him, rushing down his throat like winter air as he chewed once, twice, then swallowed.

The hilt followed a moment later.

In less than a second, the entire dagger was gone.

The three girls stared at him as if he had just devoured a live animal in front of them.

"What," Maris said flatly.

Kiyomi's ears were perfectly upright now, her tails frozen in mid-sway. "Did… did you just eat that like a snack?"

Before Cain could answer, three distinct chimes rang through his mind in quick succession.

[Skill- Dagger Arts (D) has been obtained][Skill- Ice Resistance (D) has been obtained][Skill- Water Magic (D) has been obtained]

A faint smile touched Cain's lips as he raised his right hand. Water swirled into existence above his palm, a perfect sphere of liquid spinning slowly as if the laws of nature bent around him to obey his will.

Mira's eyes gleamed with fascination. "Three separate skills," she confirmed softly, her gaze locked on him. "I can see them. They just appeared on your status board."

Cain raised a brow at that. "You can see through Manipulate Status? Impressive."

Her lips curved into the faintest hint of a smile. "Blacksmiths need to see what changes in people when they use enchanted gear. Skills, stats, mana flow… all of it leaves traces if you know how to look."

Maris, meanwhile, looked like she had swallowed a lemon whole. Her dragonkin tail lashed behind her as she stared at the empty space where the dagger had been moments before.

"He just ate it," she muttered under her breath. "Like… like a sweetroll. Years of training, endless hours of sparring, learning to handle the weight of a spear, the balance, the stances… and he eats something and gains three skills instantly?"

Her golden eyes slid toward the long spear strapped across her back. A dangerous glint entered her gaze.

Kiyomi's voice cut through the air before Maris could even reach for it. "Don't even think about it."

Maris snapped her head toward her, scowling. "What? I was not—"

"You were absolutely thinking about it," Kiyomi said dryly, folding her arms. Her three tails flicked behind her like smug punctuation marks. "Cain already told you he is the only one with Gluttony. So unless you plan to break your teeth for no reason, forget it."

Maris groaned and slumped slightly, clearly disappointed. "That is so unfair."

Jayden was left speechless watching Cain repeat what he had essentially done to her sword with the dagger that Mira had given him. While she didn't feel any resentment towards Cain himself, she was instead feeling nervous. Her dad had once proclaimed that the sword he had made for her was like a national treasure. If Cain could eat something like that, what could possibly stop him from consuming an armory of weapons?

However beyond the nervousness about confronting her dad, she actially felt a bit vindicated in her choice of men. If Cain could grow through eating, wasn't that a way he could grow to become the strongest? Plus he had given her a skill that was from the same 'series' as his? She truly wanted to know what Pride would be like when she made it whole.

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